Apparently, two Doctors in CA admitted to reusing a single blade on multiple patients and were placed on probation by the medical board, and I believe the penalty should be higher than this decision.

My hope is that the medical boards, appropriate government agencies (e.g., the FDA and CDC), and any other appropriate regulatory authorities investigate and stop harmful patient practices as soon as possible.As many as eight million patients have had LASIK so far.

My hope is that the medical boards, appropriate government agencies (e.g., the FDA and CDC), and any other appropriate regulatory authorities investigate and stop harmful patient practices as soon as possible.As many as eight million patients have had LASIK so far.

Why is the FDA and the CDC and OIG and HHS waiting for a State agency and NOT even say that reusing blades is extraordinarily dangerous? How can the Federal government endorse violations of Title 21 by Not enforcing Federal laws?

"I just can't believe that you are waiting for a State agency to punish [laser centers] and that you would even say that what they did was extraordinarily dangerous. How can you be more concerned about incidental flap complications than the overall safety of the person having the procedure. There is no question that they broke very clear safety regulations - they admitted it in the article and you obviously confirmed it in your converstation with them. For example - how about the well known case where the dentist transmitted HIV to numerous patients because of inproper sterile technique during teeth cleaning. Do you want to wait until harm is found - the answer is clearly no. "

. . .
"I must protest - there could nbever be ligitimate reasons for placing patients at incredible risk of HIV, viral hepatitis, or Mad Cow disease - all which can potentially be transmitted via the use of unsterilized sharp instuments. There is absolutely no excuse for this. It goes against every medical standard and as well goes against the laser centers licensing by OSHA (a governmental organization that certifies that surgery centers are following the appopriate blood borne pathogen.
And I have to say that your organization will lose complete credibility if this type of action is excused. These surgeons and the laser centers put their patients at severe risk. You can't look back and say no one was injured, so their actions were OK. Mad Cow Disease (Jacob-Creutzfeld) can be transmitted via the cornea (there are documented cases of patients transmitting this disease following corneal transplants) - and this disease may take 20-40 years to show up. As well, HIV is known to be present in tears - and blood is not an uncommon sight with LASIK. "

"It shouldn't matter whether you are friends with these surgeons - their violation of safe medical practices should land them out of medicine - and your organization should be leading the charge against these surgeons and any other LASIK surgeons who put laser center profits ahead of providing patients with the safest of surgeries. "
. . .
"I am especially concerned that [you] are glossing over a situation where serious patient harm occurred. They admitted violating rules and regulations regarding the reuse of disposible items without sterilizing them. This is an unquestionably serious offense and placed thousands of patients at severe risk. You can't pull out statistics that as far as you know no patient has yet been harmed. This is backwards thinking. "
...
"1 LASIK surgeon contacted me via a different forum who was using the LaserVue surgery center to do cases - until he was instructed by the staff that he had to reuse blades and reuse other disposable equipment without sterilization. This included using the "sterile" saline on multiple patients.

There is no State or national mandate that laser surgeons perform a certain number of LASIK surgeries per year - yet your organization has set an arbitrary number. There is also no State or National organization that mandates that LASIK surgeons have a certain percentage of patients reach 20/20 - yet your organization has set this number up. The reasons one would suppose is to try to identify surgeons that might be of high quality. I just can't believe that you are waiting for a State agency to punish LaserVue and that you would even say that what they did was extraordinarily dangerous. How can you be more concerned about incidental flap complications than the overall safety of the person having the procedure. There is no question that they broke very clear safety regulations - they admitted it in the article and you obviously confirmed it in your converstation with them.

For example - how about the well known case where the dentist transmitted HIV to numerous patients because of inproper sterile technique during teeth cleaning. Do you want to wait until harm is found - the answer is clearly no. There is no purpose for the [redacted] unless you are going to take an active role in trying to raise the safety of LASIK - both in doing no harm and providing good results "
...
"These are just my thoughts on this very serious subject "

"Perhaps Laservue is but the tip of the iceberg. You theoretically save money and increase profit by re-using blades and save labor costs if they are not at least sterilized between different patients. That profit maximizing motivation is not limited to Laservue.

I assume Council for Refractive Surgery Quality Assurance will add the "sterility requirement" to their list of aspiring Lasik experts seeking to affiliate with yet an additional organization.

Looks like Taco Bell is now performing eye surgery (so to speak)

To quote a recent Bill Gates TV commercial
"The best is yet to come"
Just food for thought.